This letter has evolved many times from what we thought it would be as we wrapped up last year’s annual report and anticipated the next. We planned to tell you the story of the launch of the all-new ST Math—and we still do—but now, there is another chapter to this story. This chapter is about change and exceptional need. When schools closed this spring, our educators and families looked to us for answers. With the help of our Board of Directors and social impact partners, we found solutions. We are so very proud of what has been achieved this year. Now more than ever, it is clear that our mission to ensure all students are mathematically equipped to solve the world’s most challenging problems is one of absolute necessity.
Friends, thank you for your continued support through this challenging year. Thank you for rising to the occasion. Thank you for helping us meet the moment.
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Brett Woudenberg
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Matthew Peterson, Ph.D. |
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This school year, we launched an all-new version of our flagship solution, ST Math! We couldn't have done it without the generous support, feedback, and enthusiasm of partners like you. The newest version of ST Math is responsive, works on the latest browser technologies, and runs seamlessly across devices. Designed to deepen and extend engagement to maximize learning time, the update gives ST Math’s beloved mascot, JiJi, and all the puzzles and environments a fresh new look too.
This February, our ST Math program earned the research-based design product certification from Digital Promise. This product certification is intended to serve as a rigorous, reliable signal for consumers, including school administrators, educators, and families, looking for evidence of research-based educational technology (edtech) products. MIND is one of 13 companies selected to be the first recipients of the Research-Based Design product certification.
On March 14, 2020, in light of the sweeping school closures across the country due to the COVID-19 pandemic, MIND decided to provide free access to ST Math—not only for schools, but also for parents who were suddenly homeschooling their children for an unforeseeable period of time.
In roughly 72 hours, we received over 7,000 new requests for ST Math Homeschool. For context, we normally serve roughly 800 homes per year. We are still offering ST Math free for families through the remainder of 2020.
For schools, access to ST Math remained free through June 30, 2020. During that time, MIND provided access to 5,725 additional schools and 1.8M+ new students. For context, prior to the pandemic, MIND was serving 1.2M students—onboarding roughly 700 new schools per year.
For many organizations, scaling at this speed while at the same time eliminating their source of earned revenue would have been impossible. Thanks to our Board of Directors and philanthropic partners, though, MIND was able to stay afloat while also increasing capacity to support students, educators, and families.
MIND’s flagship podcast “Inside Our MIND” took home an Edtech Leadership Award this year! Each episode of the podcast looks at issues and challenges facing education that MIND is working to address through research, technology, and strategic initiatives.
Listen in on this episode featuring Dr. Megan Kuhfeld, a research scientist at the not-for-profit organization NWEA. Dr. Kuhfeld co-authored a research brief titled “The COVID-19 Slide: What summer learning loss can tell us about the potential impact of school closures on student academic achievement.” She provides an overview of her study and talks about the immediate and long-term challenges that COVID-19 has created for students, schools, and families.
Two more educators’ stories were added to this series. Teachers and administrators across the country told us how they’re engaging, motivating, and challenging their students in unique ways.
"We saw students apply what they were learning through JiJi to other subject areas. It was all about the productive struggle and perseverance."
- Jessi Almas, ST Math Makes a Big Difference for Tier 3 Students in Madison
"It’s the teachers that make a difference. They are the difference makers. It won’t work without them."
- Dr. Regina Stewman, Best Practices and Planning for Effective Implementations
We were honored to once again partner with the Global Math Project for the 2019 Global Math Week. The Global Math Project believes that everyone is part of the global math community, and each year Global Math Week brings teachers and students around the world together through joyful math experiences. The Global Math Project is a wonderful ally for MIND that mirrors our belief that every student can develop a deep understanding, and a true love of math.
Students designed, built, and shared games that featured creative and unusual solutions to mathematical problems in our annual K-12 Game-a-thon. Despite the challenges COVID-19 brought, students were still eager to show off their math skills. We had entries from eleven states across the country!
For the fourth year in a row, MIND collaborated with Rockwell Automation at their 2019 Automation Fair®! We brought along ST Math student ambassadors to show the grownups in attendance how to really have some fun with math. We also engaged in bold conversations about the future of STEM.
We hit the road to hold Family Nights around the country. These events featured both the existing MathMINDs Games, as well as some activities that are currently in development. These experiences will inform the next wave of MathMINDs Games, as well as MIND’s ongoing work to engage families.
Being based in Orange County has its advantages! Disneyland Resort invited MIND to bring some of our ST Math students to the park so they could hear from a panel of Disney Imagineers. The panel ended with the Imagineers inviting the room full of already excited students to ride Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance before it opened to the general public!
Last November, just as I wrapped up five consecutive weeks of travel, I posted a blog titled, “5 Reasons We Are Thankful for Our Partners,” sharing insights into how our philanthropic supporters make us stronger and how they increase our capacity to impact more students year after year. What I didn’t realize at the time was that our collective commitment to the mission was about to be tested.
The pandemic changed the world, yet our partners continued to be a constant source of support and inspiration for us. As we moved quickly to innovate and meet the needs of students, parents and educators, we were bolstered by a significant increase in philanthropic funding as well as increased visibility provided by partners such as Cisco, Phillips 66, Verizon, the One8 Foundation, NewSchools Venture Fund, the Overdeck Family Foundation, Rockwell Automation, John Deere, Ueberroth Family Foundation, Beall Family Foundation, SoCalGas, Pitney Bowes Foundation, the Ahmanson Foundation, and many others.
This year, more than ever before, I want to acknowledge the genuinely caring and dedicated people that we have the privilege to call our partners. Within each of these impressive organizations, we have friends who care about those we serve as much as we do. I received frequent calls from our partners checking on our well-being as we navigated through the pandemic and civil unrest. When we decided to host our Annual Partner Advisory Forum as a virtual event, they showed up in full force to contribute to the discussion of how to prepare for the uncertainties ahead.
Every year we are tremendously grateful for the support of our partners, but this year, we feel especially honored to stand alongside them as they demonstrate the compassion, leadership, and resilience that we hope to build in every student we serve.
Karin Wu
Executive Vice President/ Executive Director, Social Impact
MIND Research Institute
Last winter, we visited faculty and students at Union Hill School in Worcester, Massachusetts to talk about the impact ST Math has had in creating a culture of perseverance and problem solving. Union Hill was able to bring ST Math to their school thanks to the One8 Foundation and its program Mass STEM Hub.
This spring, to help mitigate learning loss and the “COVID slide,” the One8 Foundation, its program Mass STEM Hub, and the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education partnered with us to provide ST Math access in grades K-6 for Massachusetts schools. This 2020 Mass Math Initiative kept meaningful learning happening over the summer and through the 2020-21 school year.
Read more »
In addition to continued support of ST Math within its VILS (Verizon Innovative Learning Schools) program, Verizon donated $10 million to nonprofit organizations serving students, families, and communities as part of its COVID-19 response. This included the No Kid Hungry initiative, the center for Disaster Philanthropy, and Direct Relief. They also tripled the data allowances for VILS, ensuring that students learning at home would be able to stay connected.
Phillips 66 knows that today’s youth are the future leaders of the energy industry. That’s why they invest in fueling students’ interests in mathematics and other STEM subjects. Phillips 66’s long-term partnership with MIND has helped to scale ST Math nationally. Phillips 66 provided funding for ST Math as well as recognized outstanding educators for their implementation of the program.
Since 2014, John Deere has continuously invested in ST Math as a part of its STEM education portfolio. Last fall, MIND was invited to highlight a panel of educators and 4th grade students at its annual John Deere Inspire event at their headquarters in Moline, IL. During COVID-19, John Deere produced protective face shields for healthcare workers on the front lines and supported a 2-for-1 match for employee donations to foodbanks and Red Cross Chapters. They also launched a COVID-19 Innovations site to provide free resources for everything from 3D-printable designs to social distancing resources.
Rockwell Automation’s innovation shined this year as they found ways to continue engaging students while they learned from home. Jay Flores contributed to MIND’s “Developing our MathMINDs” series, and developed his own series as well! “It's Not Magic It's Science!” uses the entertainment factor of magic to increase excitement and awareness in STEM. Our own JiJi even guest starred as Jay’s assistant in an episode or two.
Cisco has been a supporter of MIND Research Institute and ST Math for over fifteen years. During COVID-19, Cisco provided additional support to MIND to improve accessibility for our homeschool program, making it possible for nearly 33,000 families to gain access to ST Math. Cisco also provided free access and additional resources around its Webex platform to schools and families around the country, to help ease the transition to remote learning.
Overdeck Family Foundation was an incredible supporter of students and families as schools across the country shifted to remote learning. They provided rapid response funding to their grantee partners, including funds that helped MIND bring free access to ST Math to more than one million new students across the country.
NewSchools Venture Fund’s mission is to reimagine public education through powerful ideas, passionate educators and visionary innovators so all children—especially those in underserved communities—have the opportunity to succeed. During COVID-19, they curated resources for education innovators.
In addition to increasing support for MIND in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis, Pitney Bowes and the Pitney Bowes Foundation provided funding support to the United Way, made donations to food banks in over 45 communities across the country, helped make books available to families at meal pick-up locations, and made in-kind donations of educational materials to ensure learning was happening at home.
This year was unlike any other. We launched our all-new ST Math, met the challenges COVID-19 presented, and grew more than ever as an organization. We’re far from done though! Our mission to ensure all students are mathematically equipped to solve the world’s most challenging problems keeps us wondering, what’s next?
Big things are on the horizon for MIND. We’re finding ways to make our visual approach to learning mathematics even more impactful, and we can’t wait to share those plans with you soon!
Until then, we want to say thank you. Your continued support helps us to expand ST Math, bring math to life for communities, and further our research and development efforts. Together, we will impact even more students, teachers, and families.
